Bengaluru: The Karnataka legislative assembly that reconvened on Monday, after the weekend, is expected to witness heated exchanges and drama as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will look to corner the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) coalition over the resignations of its legislators and trust vote.

With a total of 16 resignations so far since 1 July, the H.D.Kumaraswamy-led coalition is facing an imminent collapse even though Congress and JD(S) leaders remain confident of saving the year-old government. The BJP had asked the speaker to fix a time for the trust vote on Monday.

Kumaraswamy’s decision to seek a trust vote has spooked the BJP, which until Friday was certain of forming the next government within weeks, if not days.

Though the Congress appears to have convinced senior leader Ramalinga Reddy, the coalition continues to face a risk of crumbling if assembly speaker, K.R.Ramesh Kumar, does accept the resignations.

“I will attend the assembly today. News that I have left for Mumbai is false," Reddy said on Monday, countering updates on TV channels that said the seven- time legislator from Bengaluru was on his way to join 14 other rebels in Mumbai.

Of the 16 legislators who have resigned so far, 14 are currently holed up in an upscale Mumbai hotel and have refused to meet or entertain any outreach by the Congress. The rebels on Monday wrote a letter to the Powai police station asking them not to allow any Congress delegation entry into hotel premises as they “anticipate serious threat from them".

Meanwhile, all three political parties have lodged their respective legislators in plush hotels across Bengaluru to shield them from alleged poaching attempts from the other side.

But even in the face of possibly its worst ever crisis, most Congress leaders appeared nonchalant. Siddaramaiah was seen joking as he entered Vidhana Soudha along with Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao and other leaders.